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국토연구원

Territorial Development < National Land DevelopmentSocial Development < Education

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국토연구원

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Abstract

Despite of continuous efforts to cope with overcrowding in the Seoul Metropolitan area and the balanced regional growth in Korea, socioeconomic disparity among regions have seldom been lessened. Especially after 1997's economic crisis caused by foreign exchange shortage, the regional socioeconomic disparity has a tendency to be widened. It has proposed that policies and programs for the regional socioeconomic balance had no effect because most policy means were oriented to physical regulations and hardware such as the limitation of factory building in the Seoul Metropolitan area, industrial complex construction for local development, etc. And it is suggested that through public policies and programs for the balanced regional development local establishment of firms, promotion of productivity in local economies, and improvement of local self-sustained growth should be supported and guided. This study aims at suggesting the visions and strategies for the balanced regional development in the 「Vision 2011 Project」. Vision 2011 Project is the long-range plan toward 2011 and is planned to contain the visions and strategies for economic development and growth. Vision 2011 Project is scheduled to carry out from 2002 as national plan. In this study main theme is the improvement of interregional balance and integration through the coexistence and co-prosperity of the Seoul Metropolitan area nad other regions. And on the basis of this main theme, four basic concepts for the balanced regional development are addressed. Four basic concepts for the balanced regional development are the decentralization of population and socioeconomic activities, the decentralization of power, specialization in accordance with regional characteristics, and interregional cooperation and integration. We suggest eight strategies for the balanced regional development in accordance with the four basic concepts as follows. First, each region needs to be specialized in a specific industry on the basis of the comparative advantages of regional industry. Second, regional education system needs to be reformed in order to meet the demands of human resource derived from the regional industry. Third, the Seoul Metropolitan area needs to be locally decentralized according to the regional characteristics so as to rationally manage urban land use and to improve the competitiveness from worldwide viewpoint. Fourth, pivotal functions and facilities such as departments of the central government, head offices of firms, etc. needs to be relocated to the provincial regions. Fifth, the backward regions such as inlands, and secluded islands, etc. needs to be furnished with urban services. Sixth, interregional gap in the infrastructure of transportation and information services needs to be reduced. Seventh, integrated assistance system needs to be constructed for improving local self-government and promoting the balanced regional development. Eighth, land use management and planning system needs to be rearranged and simplified in order to develop regions in an orderly manner.